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Thursday, September 27, 2007

If you want to take part in the auction for all the book inventory caught up in the Advanced Marketing Services bankruptcy (including books from Publishers Group West), click on the banner above. It will take you to the online auction site for the auction of millions of dollars worth of books.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

In his blog, Seth Godin pointed out the following statements from Michael Brooke, editor of Concrete Wave, the magazine for skateboarders. I think what Michael has to say applies as well to most book authors. Check it out:

I am not publishing a magazine – I am helping to document and foster change within skateboarding. The magazine is part of a greater movement within skateboarding. Concrete Wave exists to spread specific ideas. The more people we can spread these ideas too, the more success we achieve.

I am not merely building readers or subscribers – I am building a cult of supporters, each of whom will further support the cause and bring in more readers and subscribers.

I build marketing INTO the product and distribution. By limiting the kinds of advertisers I allow, by keeping the editorial strictly focused and by carefully distributing the magazine, my readers and advertisers trust the magazine to deliver on its promise of 100% skateboarding. I will never betray that trust.

Concrete Wave wishes to remain a ball bearing – small, hard to find and continually in the state of being polished. Our goal is to provide readers with a deep impression when they get hit with it. Conversely, we do not aim to be a beach ball – big, seen all over the place, colorful and yet leaving very little impression when it hits. A beach ball is very fragile indeed and must avoid challenging environments, because it requires so much air to keep it afloat. A weighty ball bearing can withstand both challenging environments along with the pin pricks of adversity.

Most authors would be better served becoming small solid ball bearings than over-inflated beach balls. Focus on your core audience rather than trying to convince the world that you are the fulfillment of the masses.

Friday, September 21, 2007

In addition to the quote by Sean Penn in Entertainment Weekly cited below, Sean also talked about the book cover for Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild in a recent interview in Time magazine:

"The cover grabbed me--the bus, the image of the bus with the title Into the Wild on it. I've made a lot of decisions in my life that you could call judging a book by its cover. And I've become a real advocate of it. So I took the book home, and I read it cover to cover twice, and I went to sleep in the wee hours and immediately got up in the morning, and I saw in essence the movie that you saw last night."

I noticed the following quote from actor and director Sean Pean in a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly. He had been asked when he decided to make Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild into a film. His answer was as follows (the bold is my emphasis):

"When the book first came out, I wandered into a bookstore, saw it on the shelf, judged the book by its cover, took it home, read it twice, finally fell asleep, woke up, and started trying to see if the rights were available. I had a very strong feeling that this thing was dying to get out of the pages and onto the screen."

That's how a cover should work. It should draw potential readers into the book, get them to pick it up, buy it, and read it. That's what happened to Sean Penn. That's why covers are important, not just for the initial sell, not just for the initial impression, but also for the potential of follow-up sales, including movie rights and other subsidiary rights.

Friday, September 14, 2007

I recently returned from a conference in California and wore a t-shirt with my 1001 Ways to Market Your Books cover. I got a comment on the shirt from someone in the elevator down to the shuttle van, from someone at the front desk, from two people in the shuttle van who need the book (I referred them to my BookMarket.com website), another person in the van, the person at the check-in counter, someone in line to board the plane, the pilot when getting off the plane, and someone in the grocery store on the way home.

Not bad for an $18.00 t-shirt from CafePress.com.

More than one person commented: I guess that's 1002 ways to market your books (the t-shirt being the extra way). Of course, the truth is that t-shirts are already included in the 1001, but I just agreed. It's simpler that way.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Over the years, authors who wanted to promote their books directly to the public had one main option; you had to physically travel across the country conducting book signings and readings in various bookstores and praying that people would show up. This meant spending money on flights, hotels, transportation and meals. This traditional type of book tour is expensive and very few publishing companies are willing to pay for them. But now, authors have a new method of ‘touring the world’―the virtual book tour.

Virtual book tours (also known as virtual author tours, guest blogging, blog tours, or VBTs) are a simple concept. The author tours various blogs and sites that pertain to a theme in the book or to writing in general. This way, you can potentially reach thousands of avid readers each tour day from the privacy of your office or home.

The goal of marketing your book is to expose it to as many people as possible in an exciting, cost-effective and entertaining way. Guest blogging can achieve that goal. Most blogs are archived, so your post becomes permanent and often viral, spreading from site to site. That is leverage. You are in essence leveraging your internet presence and duplicating yourself with every VBT stop. Your blog tour is working for you even while you sleep. Try doing that at a bookstore signing!

Virtual author tours really took off in the past year or two. They began with a handful of authors posting to other blogs in order to promote their works online. They announced those dates just as they would a bona fide book signing. This kind of author tour is now becoming all the rage. Some bookstores are no longer allowing authors to do book signings. Limited space and time constraints are the common reasons. Plus, it just isn't time efficient and monetarily feasible for most authors to do the physical cross-country bookstore tour. Well, unless you are one of the super authors that get paid the big bucks, like Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. And since I am neither, I decided to hold my first blog tour this past August―for the entire month―to promote my latest novel Whale Song.

Virtual book tour services and book marketing experts are popping up all over the internet. Authors can now outsource the organization of a VBT. I suggest that you thoroughly check out these companies and ask yourself if the price is worth it. Some services cost thousands of dollars, while some cost less but only post your content to duplicate sites―ones they have set up themselves. The latter is not an advantage to you. You need to have wide coverage and exposure to various sites and audiences. Go where your readers are.

Planning a VBT is time-consuming, but not that difficult. You may find it more worthwhile to take the time to plan your own blog tour, since you’ll have more control over who hosts you this way. Or you may decide that hiring someone to coordinate the tour is best. Do what’s right for you. I chose to do my own because I wanted to have flexibility in what each site posted and I enjoyed the contact with my hosts.

How to organize a virtual book tour:

• Start planning at least 1 month before you want to begin, and never before your book is available for sale. I suggest you allow 1 month when planning a 2-week tour and 6 weeks for a 1-month tour. It takes time to get the hosts lined up and on board and you don’t want to shortchange yourself.

• Read everything you can find on virtual book tours. There are numerous articles online and many books that give great advice. Check out Steve Weber’s Plug Your Book! for VBT advice and more, and John Kremer’s 1001 Ways to Market You Books for numerous marketing tips.

• Determine the length of your book tour―1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month.

• How many hosts will you need? 1 a day is best. If you have a radio interview, you could have it scheduled on a day when you have a text post appearing on another blog.

• Make a list of keywords and phrases that relate to your book.

• Search for these terms on Google and look for any sites that show up on the first page. Sites on the first Google page are the ones that your potential audience will find more easily. Make a note of these sites or save them in your Favorites under a folder marked VBT contacts.

• Search Technorati as well, although personally I found this method more time-consuming and confusing. Look for sites that have a high Authority and high number of Fans. Keep in mind that Authority means that people have voted for this blog, but that it doesn’t necessarily mean it is the best site for you.

• Use Alexa to get traffic results. Some sites or blogs may not rank well on Google or Technorati but may still be a viable host for your VBT.

• Look at the amount of reader participation. Do people leave comments? Is the topic of the site perfect for your book? Often lesser known sites and ones without a Google PageRank are little goldmines. You may find that the host will go out of his or her way to advertise you and your VBT. Don’t ignore sites by friends or fellow authors either. One day these sites could score an 8 or 9 on Google.

• Install and use Google PageRank. This is a simple tool that allows you to view the Google Rank of sites and blogs, which is Google’s interpretation of how important the site is based on the authority of inbound links that lead to the site. Go through your list and check their Google PageRank. List them in order of importance and contact the highest ranking ones first. In the beginning, contact about 25% more hosts than you actually need. Not all will say yes.

• Write an email that you’ll send individually to each potential host. Let them know what you’re doing and what you can supply. I always like to point out the benefits to hosts―more traffic, new visitors, fresh and interesting content, prizes, and a link on my website. What’s in it for them? That’s what they want to know. Make sure you hook your host, just like you would with a query letter to a publisher.

• Internet radio and promotional sites that charge small fees also make wonderful hosts. ArtistFirst Radio Network and Passionate Internet Voices Radio are online radio networks that interview authors in exchange for a donation or small fee. For an a la carte or membership fee, Author Island is another excellent site for authors holding a virtual book tour. You can post a book trailer and excerpt, plus advertise your contests and tour.

• Confirm hosts’ dates, topics and ask them to post the night before. This way you are not waiting all morning for them to post your content. Let them know you’ll send them the information 3-5 days before their date. If you send it too early they may lose, misfile or delete it. What will you submit? Each blog or site will usually feature one or a combination of the following: a book cover, a summary or synopsis, an interview, book review, an article that fits the site’s theme, a short story, an excerpt, a contest, an audio-cast or a book trailer video.

• Advertise your VBT via online and media press releases. It is a great investment, since it’s no good doing a virtual book tour if no one knows about it. One leading press release distribution service that I use almost exclusively is 24-7PressRelease.com, where you can pay from $10.00 to $299.00, depending on your distribution requirements. However, I can attest to the fact that a $45.00 release is the minimum you’ll want and its effectiveness is worth it. Other online services include PRWeb and WebWire, and don’t forget to send releases to the free services too, like ClickPress.com and FreePress.com. Press releases can be extremely beneficial if written correctly and distributed extensively to the right audience, and this means submitting them to your local media (newspapers, TV, radio) as well.

• Publicize your virtual book tour and other events on BookTour.com, a free site that connects authors to readers by listing author events and making it easy for readers to set up reminders and track their favorite authors.

• Promote your VBT on all your websites and blogs on an events page. Put up a schedule with your hosts’ home page URL. I found it more exciting to post a weekly schedule the day before the week began. It prevented people from going to host sites too early and kept them coming back to my website to see where I’d be going next. I promoted the mystery, which worked to my advantage since I’m a suspense author. This also gave me 1 extra blog post each week, and therefore new content.

The day before each virtual stop:

• Send out a reminder to your host and ask them to post that night. Make sure they have book cover jpgs, your photo and anything else they might need.

The morning of each stop:

• Confirm that your host has posted your content. Check the site. Copy the full URL that leads directly to your post. The home page will change and you want your links to always lead to the exact page that the host has created just for your content.

• Change the home page URL on your schedule to the exact page link. This is how you really leverage yourself. Now when someone stumbles across your schedule and clicks on the link, they’ll be directed to your post, not your host’s ever-changing home page.

• Write an introduction about the day’s stop and post it everywhere. Copy the first paragraph or two of the interview or article and use that for your intro. Post intros to all websites and blogs that you have access to. Don’t forget to post to your Amazon blog, MySpace blog, and MySpace bulletin. The latter goes out to all your MySpace friends. Make sure you have some!

Follow-up:

• Check your host site frequently throughout the day for comments and answer any questions directly on your host site. Do this every other day afterward for about a week. Offer to write a possible follow-up article, depending on what you posted originally.

• Assess the success of your virtual book tour. Set up TitleZ and/or Charteous to monitor your book’s Amazon sales rank throughout the VBT. You should see some lower ranks (lower is better!) during your blog tour, particularly if you have a contest or incentive that inspires more sales of your book. Be creative and have fun!

Authors are now starting to comprehend the full potential that blog tours have to offer and how they benefit everyone involved. You could sign books at a bookstore for three hours plus driving time and reach a few hundred people yet sell only to a few dozen, or you could organize a VBT and promote to millions of people worldwide. Virtual book tours take time, patience and research, but as I have discovered, they are definitely worthwhile. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So why not start today? You have the entire world at your fingertips!

~*~

If you found this article helpful, please consider picking up a copy of Cheryl’s newest novel Whale Song through Amazon.

Cheryl Kaye Tardif is the author of The River, Divine Intervention, and the Amazon bestseller Whale Song. Among her peers, she is known for her perseverance and tireless dedication in book promotion. In August 2007, she was the first Kunati Books author to hold a virtual book tour with 35 stops.

Monday, September 10, 2007

The following is an interview with Howie Jacobson, author of AdWords for Dummies.

1. What are the three biggest mistakes beginners make when advertising via Google AdWords?

1. Muddying Results from Search and Content Networks - A person actively searching for your keyword should be marketed to differently from someone who was reading an article or blog post and happened to see your ad. Make sure you create separate campaigns for search traffic and content traffic, and speak to them differently and measure their response differently.

2. Ignoring the Principle of Relevance - Creating one giant ad group with hundreds of unrelated keywords all going to a single ad and a single landing page, rather than laser targeting small groups of tightly related keywords to specific ads and lots of "that's for me!" landing pages.

3. Not Split Testing - It's so easy to split test ads and landing pages using AdWords. Everyone who starts split testing becomes amazed at the surprising insights they gain into their market. Routinely, split testing can increase profits by 400 to 1200% over a few months.

2. What three elements make for a great Google ad?

1. Positioning - Saying something different and meaningful than the other ads. The Google Search Results Page is the most competitive advertising real estate on the planet. How is your offer different from the other 19+ offers on the same page? What makes you stand out?

2. Speaks to the Itch Behind the Search - If you know what your prospect is really thinking when they type a search term, you can market to their "little voice" in a subtle and powerful way. What triggered their search at that moment? What is the story they're telling themselves right now? How can you join the conversation already going on in their head?

3. Uses the Display URL - The display URL can be the most important line of your ad. Buy a bunch of domains and test them out. See if .com or .org makes you more attractive. Try memorable names, benefit-driven and problem-based names, generic and specific names. Your URL is the only part of your marketing that can't be copied. That's why Lulu.com is suing Hulu.com for copyright infringement.

3. If the term you'd like to rate high in costs too much for your campaign, how can you compete?

1. Optimize your campaign to get costs as low as possible.

a. Get your quality score to Great.b. Improve the click-through rate through testing.c. Use exact match and negative keywords to eliminate wasted clicks.d. Test the content network for websites that convert well and bid on impressions rather than clicks (CPM for site-targeted campaigns).

2. Find related keywords that cost less.

a. Longer tailb. Synonymsc. Misspellings and typos

3. Spend the money on that keyword to determine conversion. If it converts well, consider organic search engine optimization.

4. Improve your website and back end so the high-priced keyword is worth it. Remember, AdWords is a stock market for keywords. Each keyword is priced at the market rate, determined by the average value of that keyword to advertisers. If it's too expensive for you, that means your competitors have figured out how to extract more value from that keyword than you have.

5. If you can't extract more value per click than your competitors, then approach them about buying their unconverted traffic, or being an additional part of their back end on an affiliate basis.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

In a blog post on Saturday (How to Spend $20 Million), Seth Godin noted that Steve Jobs should NOT have given early adopters of the iPhone a $100 store credit when Apple lowered the price of the iPhone by $200 last week. Giving early adopters pseudo price protection is not the way to run a profitable business.

First, giving that store credit will cost Apple some $20 million. Second, the $100 store credit feels like a weak effort (it's only half of the price cut). Third, no matter how it is phrased, a half store credit feels like the early adopters were taken advantage of.

The key, Seth noted, was not pretending to guarantee price protection but making the early adopters feel more exclusive rather than less. To accomplish that, Seth suggested one of the following three options:

1. Free exclusive ringtones, commissioned from Bob Dylan and U2, only available to the people who already had a phone. (This is my favorite because it announces to your friends--every time the phone rings--that you got in early).

2. Free pass to get to the head of the line next time a new hot product comes out.

3. Ability to buy a specially colored iPod, or an iPod with limited edition music that no one else can buy.

I think the first option is the best, because it really does offer something exclusive. It would have continued to signal to latecomers who the hot people (early adopters) were. Plus, of course, the cost would have been minimal.

The second option is too vague. What if, as an early adopter, you have no interest in the next hot product. The free pass, then, becomes an empty promise. While most Apple lovers would never think that Apple would create an unwanted product, the reality is that Apple has done that more than once.

The third option, like the first, offers a sense of exclusivity. But why would anyone want another iPod when the iPhone already functions as a great iPod? With the suggestion of some limited edition music, though, the offer might work. But the price would also have to be right. Otherwise, you not only paid $200 extra to get the iPhone first, but you have to pay more for the exclusive iPod.

I believe most early adopters did not feel abused by the price cut. They had the early adopter prestige for more than two months plus the use of a great phone. If I had been able to buy the iPhone, I would not have cared what happened later. In the world of technology, prices always go down.

Alas, for me, I didn't get a chance to be "abused" because Apple chose to work with ATT which has a huge gaping hole of coverage in the Rocky Mountain area. Once you are off any of the interstate highways, you have no coverage via ATT. Now, of course, I have a chance to buy the new iPod Touch. Neat!

Now, back to the theme of this post. How do you keep people happy? Simple, give them a good deal. Or give them exclusivity. During its lifetime, Apple has rarely offered a great deal, but they have always offered wonderfully designed products that always offer an air of exclusivity.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

When Heather Brewer found out that her first novel Eighth Grade Bites would be published on the same day as Adele Griffin's Vampire Island, she sent Adele a message via MySpace.com. They soon met in New York City where they exchanged galleys. As they talked, they decided it would be fun to write a blog from the viewpoints of their vampire characters.

Brewer's Vladimir Tod suffers the typical junior high troubles (girls and bullies) while Griffin's Lexie Livingstone, a human-fruit bat hybrid, tries to keep her superhuman abilities secret while attending school. It wasn't hard for the two authors to imagine their two characters meeting at a summer debate trip to DC.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

In a Sunday New York Times article on blog tours, Felicia Sullivan, senior online marketing manager for Collins was quoted as saying, “If I had to choose, I’d rather have an author promote themselves online. You can reach at least a few hundred people on a blog, and save time, money and the fear of being a loser when no one shows up to your reading.”

What a sad comment on the possibilities of a blog tour: Do the tour if you don't want to be a loser. Sad. That's not why you should do a blog tour. You should do a tour because it can be an incredible way to reach a targeted audience for your book.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

I love the Book Brahmins interviews in the Shelf Awareness ezine because one of the questions they ask every interviewee is what book they've bought for the cover. Well, today's cover of choice -- as chosen by Debra Ginsberg, author of the memoir Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress -- is Jessica Cutler's The Washingtonienne.

Now, I understand why a man would be attracted to the cover. I found it inspirational. And I can also see how a woman would like the cover. It is very arresting.

Of course, I would have loved to see the title be bolder, but I guess they felt that, if they made it bolder, it would take away from the other attractions on the cover. Sometimes you have to make tough choices in designing a cover.

RadioPRGuy.com - "When you decide that you're ready to start dealing with radio stations directly, get Alex Carroll's program. His top radio show database, tapes of dealing with producers, and examples of actual talk shows will help you to become a radio talk show star." - John Kremer

About John Kremer

John Kremer is an expert on book publishing and book marketing. Besides being the owner of a publishing company (Open Horizons in Taos, New Mexico), he is the editor of the Book Marketing Tip of the Week newsletter.